Books from Aotearoa for a world beyond capitalism and colonialism.
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Jewish Not Zionist by Marilyn Garson Marilyn Garson worked in Gaza for four years, enduring Israeli bombardments and witnessing the toll of the total military siege on the lives of ordinary Palestinians, during which she was forced to ask herself, “What do I believe: everything I’ve ever been told or the world in front of my eyes?” As she unlearned Zionism, she uncovered a rich, outward-looking Jewishness and became a practising Jew. In her new book, she recounts the story of her return home seeking community and justice for Palestine, quickly discovering most unwilling to confront the contradictions inherent in the settler-colonial project of Zionism. Excluded from Jewish institutions, she co-founded Alternative Jewish Voices to call for justice in a pluralist, anti-racist Jewish voice. In two parts, the book also carefully examines the ways in which claims of antisemitism are being continually weaponised in defence of Israel’s atrocious human rights abuses and system of apartheid. Garson traces the history and interconnections between local institutional voices that seek to silence and undermine any criticisms of Israel, and the dangers in signing up to a definition of antisemitism that contains a barely-cloaked political agenda. A founding member of Global Jews for Palestine, Garson writes with the aroha of Gaza and an unwavering resolve learned on the front lines of the international movement for justice. "Brave? As if Garson's life and work could be reduced to a single, personal trait. We are very fortunate to be offered a glimpse into a full life of solidarity and community building, from a writer who treats self-reflection with the utmost care. A brilliant work of solidarity. Garson shines a light, through sharp and honest prose, on an alternative path to identity and religious hope through community building." - Murdoch Stephens, author of Doing Our Bit: The campaign to double the refugee quota. "In this extraordinary book, Marilyn Garson grapples with the unbearable pain of her exclusion from her small New Zealand Jewish community in response to her support for Palestinian human rights. Rather than a tale of retreat and recrimination, this is a story of spiritual and political commitment to the principle that Jewish tradition and practice can and must be reclaimed for liberatory purposes. At the heart of this story is the growing rift in Jewish communities worldwide over the brutal legacy of the Zionist project. The claim that Jews uniformly embrace any one political ideology can be easily debunked by even the most cursory look at Jewish history. Zionism, the 20th century political creed claiming that only a sovereign Jewish state in historic Palestine would be able to protect Jews from antisemitism, has been debated and disputed by Jews for more than a century. Zionism has nonetheless become a central tenet in post-Holocaust Jewish life. As Jewish studies scholar Shaul Magid notes, the dogma of compulsory Zionism has rendered “non-or anti-zionism an unspoken heresy” within mainstream Jewish communities. Dissident Jews who are demonstrating openly in their tens of thousands worldwide against the current war on Gaza face slanderous attacks from Jewish institutional leaders who defame us as “useful idiots”, “self-haters”, “un-Jews” and worse; this is a frank betrayal of the long Jewish tradition of theological debate and political diversity." - from the introduction by Sheryl Nestel. "Marilyn Garson disentangles Judaism from the nationalist project of Zionism. Garson explains exactly why criticism of the actions of the state of Israel is not, by definition, antisemitism. For Garson, it is necessary, from a humanitarian and ethical perspective, to talk publicly about what has happened and is still happening to the Palestinian people…we were part of a generation who were brought up to endorse Israel as the way to keep Jews safe from another Holocaust. Part of this involved accepting, endorsing, or at least saying nothing about, the occupation by Israel of Gaza, the illegal expansion of settlements on the West Bank and the systematic ill-treatment of the Palestinian population of those places. We are no longer willing to look away." - Lynn Jenner, author of Lost and Gone Away. "Marilyn Garson's compelling book takes readers on a journey of resistance, shedding light on the conflict between Jewish identity and Zionism. It urges us to delve into grassroots Jewish solidarity, its potential and challenges, and the struggle against Zionism's dominance. This timely contribution is essential in understanding the role of Jewish solidarity in dismantling Israeli colonisation and reclaiming the true essence of Jewish identity. It is particularly relevant in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, providing valuable insights and perspectives on these current events." Dr. Nijmeh Ali of The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago "An ancient Chinese proverb says: "When Marilyn Garson speaks, the world ought to listen." Having benefited from Marilyn's wisdom and spirit over many years, I wholeheartedly recommend the proverb and her new book." Norman Finkelstein Marilyn Garson grew up in Halifax, Canada, the youngest of four sisters in a Zionist-Jewish household. She has degrees in political science, philosophy and international development. Immigrating to Hokianga in the mid-1980s, she owned a weaving design label and taught other small business owners. From 1998 she worked with marginalised communities affected by war, launching locally owned social enterprises. She worked with Cambodian former child combatants and people with disabilities (1998-2001), established an import channel for global handmade goods as the founding director of Worldstock.com (2001 – 2003), worked with Afghan family businesses and led an enterprise that employed at women at home in Afghanistan and Pakistan (2005 – 2010). In 2011, she received an unsolicited offer to work and live in the Gaza Strip—an extraordinary invitation to live among people she had been told were her enemies. Her first book, Still Lives: a Memoir of Gaza tells the story of four years, two wars, and the most unlikely social enterprise. She wrote to add adjectives to public understanding of the community of Gaza: educated, ambitious, and audaciously human behind a blockade wall. Garson returned to Aotearoa in late 2015 to live as a member of the Jewish community, settle down, and speak about the human rights of Palestinians. As she recounts in Jewish, not Zionist, it didn’t turn out that way. Published October 22 2024. ISBN 978-0-473-72462-7 |
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